Old 09-08-2021, 17:34   #1
Penn
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Ida

Ida

There are few experiences more challenging than riding out a major storm, Ida certainly made an impression in NJ.

Lambertville was hit hard, but the contributing factor was the reservoir spillways above the town. Ida dropped a foot (12”) of rain in our AO, Hunterdon County, in under 3 hrs. The reservoir sit on top of the Hunterdon Plateau, a rock the size of NYC is sq/miles, the spillways are channeled through Lambertville via a natural aqueduct that is Swan Creek, in addition to the man made spillways designed to channel water through the town via street connecting to spillway to the Erie canal and the Delaware River.

In 1890 that was some hi-tech guru sh*t, today it’s a an insurance death sentence. Once the river reaches flood stage, spillways cease to channel and water seeks it lowest level, roadways, Lambertville basements, autos, absorbed all that excess water.

We had never experienced an event such as this, and mind you, even if you had, there was little time to prepare. One minute a flood warning is issued, the next, tornado warning guiding people to take shelter in basement, a death sentence in Lambertville proper. Luckily, that warning never made it to the populace, or the 66 deaths in NJ, would have been far higher.

Survival, and what this post is centered on.

My Sous Chef is a 28 yo/w, who at one time wanted to join the Marines. We had several conversations about that, and that the opportunity to enlist was still available to her. Our main input was mindset, that yes, you can still do this, but it all about determination, commitment, not quitting, and that she had to rap her head around that concept. We offer examples like going to the gym in a timeframe headset defeats the purpose. So, who cares if your schedule affords and hour a day at the gym, when you enlist and you go for a run, the run is not about how far, as much as it is about it ends when it ends?

All that talk came into play, when she attempted to forge a swollen stream crossing a roadway that joined a dry creek bed.

Trapped in her car, she opened the sunroof and climbed out onto the roof. She called home telling her Father the sitrep. Her Father a retired Police Chief immediately comes to the scene, just a few blocks from their home, as he arrives and makes contact, his daughter is swept away by the current. He tries to save her by jumping in the water, as Megan is swept away she is stripped naked by the current, she grabs on to some vines and pulls herself up into a tree, along with two others, a husband and wife. All three are now holding on to a tree in the middle of a flash flood in the pitch black darkness of a hurricane.

Hyperthermia, panic, all the shit that rises in panic mode is the driver, naked, with two others who are equally ill prepared fight to survive for the next four hours.
Asking about what she was thinking, Megan stated, “I knew I could not get out by myself, I knew that the water was warmer than the air, I knew that if I let go, I was dead, I knew that my father was swept away, and he was probably dead, I was crying and praying, thinking of my Mother, my sister, my dog that was in the car with me, and then the two people that were in the tree with me”.

“When the man fade out and let go, I knew he was going to die and that almost destroyed me, because I got them to the tree, I felt responsible”.

When the rescue boat light started to flash, she stated, she was so exhausted she could barely scream, but she made contact, and thought she heard her Father answering her call for help.

Rescued and on solid ground, an ambulance arrives to pick her up and the women she was with for the pass four hours, as the door opens, her dad is there
On the gurney blue lip and shaking, trying to say her name.

She said, I concentrated on prayers, one minute at a time, get through this minute to get through the next minute.

Last edited by Penn; 09-09-2021 at 07:52. Reason: text errors.
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Old 09-08-2021, 19:26   #2
Old Dog New Trick
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Good to hear a sad story with a (mostly) happy ending.



Yes, man-made disaster all in the making of a terrible mess that Mother Nature shows no remorse for.

When I first got to Houston just before Harvey it was quite amazing the decision makers hadn’t begun dumping water from the three main reservoirs before it was too late…days to prepare and hours to panic…weeks, months and still years later not anymore prepared or ready for the next one.

I’d seen that happen before in Washington as well, dam/reservoir operators too slow to see the catastrophe coming straight at them in slow motion with meteorological experts shouting at the top of their lungs, “this is going to be a historic disaster, the time to prepare is now!” Crickets from local officials and planning commissions.
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